


Written In Ink, Carved In Stone

by hydrangea



Category: Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter - Laurell K. Hamilton, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: AU, Case Fic, Crossover, Fix-It, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2019-07-10 17:54:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15954527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hydrangea/pseuds/hydrangea
Summary: No longer the only Slayer, Buffy finds herself without a purpose after the defeat of the First. When the Powers decide to restore a balance unsettled long ago, everything changes and Buffy must change with it.





	Written In Ink, Carved In Stone

**Author's Note:**

> This story disregards all Buffy canon after the seventh season and all canon after the third book of the Anita Blake book series. The universe is a mix of all three fandoms - this is not a Buffy is transposed into the canon Anita Blake world story.
> 
> This fic was previously posted elsewhere. I'm now posting it on AO3 to keep my fic together. Some spelling/grammar errors and word flow issues has been corrected.

The night was, contrary to most nights in Buffy Summers' life, calm and uneventful. Not one of the newly deceased residents of Washington D.C. seemed inclined to rise and Buffy felt well on her way to perpetual boredom as she drove between the grave sites of potential vampire victims. Exiting the car for the fifth time that night, she twirled a stake into her pocket and scowled at the unlit entrance. Maybe she should look into the possibility of assigning another slayer to Carmen's area while Carmen vacationed. Even with the seductive closeness to Dawn at the N.A. Headquarters, this was becoming tedious. There had to be some young girl somewhere who needed an area like this to get used to her new gift.  
  
Reaching her next destination, Buffy scuffed her foot over the fresh earth covering what she hoped was Nicolas Smith's final resting place and then settled in to see if her presence to would make him rise. Experience said that the presence of a slayer sped up the rising of a vampire but it didn't make the process of waiting any more fun. This was what slaying was these days though - ever since all Potentials had been awakened and the First Evil thwarted, there had been fewer and fewer disasters that needed her attention and thus nightly patrolling of local graveyards was as much her normal day as it was a newbie potential's.  
  
Smith remained silent and Buffy headed for the next grave. Maybe she would go visit Angel for a while after finding a replacement for the area - or maybe not. Their situation was still as impossible as ever and Buffy was quite frankly not willing to expose herself to the heartache attached to romance any time soon. With no Dawn around to protest her 'pessimistic mindset', it was easy to admit that probably meant staying away from dating completely. All of her boyfriends since Pike had come with heartache and bad break-ups, and the possibility of domestic happiness seemed to disappear as the years passed.  
  
Buffy perched herself on a stone next to the freshly upturned dirt marking the next potential vampire spot and let her thoughts wander. How long had it been since that first serious relationship? Fifteen years? Sixteen? It seemed so long ago... It was hard to remember Pike's face these days and Merrick's was little more than a blur. She could barely remember her first vampire kill at this point.  
  
She frowned, the thought setting something off in her mind. While the details of the encounter was fuzzy, she was fairly sure she _did_ remember her first kill. The image her mind supplied her with, however, was...strange. There was no game-face, no demonic taint, no snarling. The vampire hadn't really been like your average undead at all. _In fact_ she couldn't remember seeing another vampire like those first vampires she killed since moving to Sunnydale.  
  
"...the hell?" she muttered and slid off the stone, digging out her cellphone. She needed to ask Willow about this.  
  
"You might say that," a voice agreed.  
  
Buffy dropped the phone, her jaw going tense. She knew that voice. "Whistler." She turned and gave him a toothy smile. "Long time no see. Couldn't we have kept it that way? I could cope with seeing you, oh, _never again_."  
  
Whistler tsked at her. "I'm hurt! One might think you're not happy to see me."  
  
"Should I be? It's not like you're the harbinger of bad news or anything."  
  
Whistler scratched the back of his neck. "It's not like I decide the news I carry." He caught the look Buffy gave him and held up a hand. "No, really. I'm bound to the Powers that Be just like you are. Just a messenger, slayer."  
  
Buffy pulled out her stake. "Want to get to the point?"  
  
Whistler winced. "Yes, yes," he said and pulled something from his pocket. "Do you want to go somewhere to talk?" Buffy raised the stake. "Or not. Slayer, I'm just here to answer your question."  
  
"What question?" she asked, then continued, "Never mind. Five minutes, then I'm out of here. I still have cemeteries to visit, vampires to slay - you know, the thing."  
  
Whistler straightened, the smile gone. "So be it," he said and looked her straight in the eye. "You were wondering about the vampires you killed in Los Angeles."  
  
"Yeah," Buffy agreed, drawing out the word. "You've got a point?"  
  
Whistler shot her a look. "If you'd stop yapping for a second," he said, then waited until she waved at him to continue. "The reason your memories tell you that things were different back then, is because they were."  
  
Buffy tensed. "What do you mean?"  
  
"You're not from around here." Something started to build in the air, something uncomfortable and hard. "When you were Called, you lived in a neighboring dimension. After your defeat of Lothos, the Powers decided you were needed more in this dimension than the one you were born in."  
  
It felt as if a fist had grabbed her by the heart and _squeezed_. "What?"  
  
"The dimension you were born in had no need of a slayer," Whistler continued, paying her no attention. "This dimension is in grave need of one. You know how it goes: few if any slayers before you lived to see their eighteenth birthday. In the dimension where you were born, a slayer is called only when the need is grave. Lothos created that need, you were the one to answer it. Only you showed a potential the world had never seen before. Even the Powers were taken by surprise."  
  
And just like that, Buffy knew where this was going. "They wouldn't let me go."  
  
"They _couldn't_ ," Whistler corrected her. "Not when someone like you was needed so badly."  
  
Buffy gritted her teeth. "What is it then? Has all my life been a lie since I came to Sunnydale?"  
  
"No," Whistler replied. "Everything was, _is,_ very much real. To you, the dimensions were identical up to that moment. It was merely a question of switching you and your counterpart in this dimension."  
  
"And what of the other me?"  
  
Whistler shook his head.  
  
Buffy ignored the sudden tightness of her chest and fought to keep her voice from shaking as she spoke. "You want me to return there."  
  
"I'm sorry, for what it's worth," Whistler offered. "Your work as a slayer is over. Maybe this other dimension can offer the peace you've been looking for."  
  
Buffy shook her head. "Don't," she said, mind frantically trying to figure out what to do. Grasping at straws, she said, "Do I get to say goodbye?"  
  
Whistler looked away. Buffy froze, something she didn't even want to consider beginning to take form in her mind. When Whistler spoke again, there was nothing but regret in his voice. "You have already been transferred." He reached into a pocket and withdrew a thick package. "You'll find all you need in here."  
  
He tossed the package at her. Buffy didn't catch it, moving towards him with narrowed eyes. With a look in his eyes Buffy had never seen before, Whistler batted her away before she had the chance to attack. She slammed into a tree, struggling to find her breath as he walked away. Just before he disappeared through the high gates of the graveyard, before she had gathered herself enough to follow, he turned towards her. "Don't try to find someone to move you through the dimensions," he warned. "The Powers won't allow it."  
  
Then he was gone, leaving rusty gates behind him as he faded into nothing. Buffy was left on the ground, fingers digging into fresh earth and eyes staring at nothing in a world she had never known she left... and didn't know anymore.


End file.
